Verbs - English Morphology

Major verb functions and classes

- 2 major roles in a verb phrase: main or auxiliary verb
Main verb can stand alone as the entire verb phrase.
Auxiliary verb occur together with some main verb.

Exceptions, where auxiliary verbs seem to function alone as verb phrases, include instances of ellipsis, where a repeated main verb is ellipted, and question and declarative tags.

- 3 major classes of verbs:

Lexical verbs (full verbs) – main verb function
– comprise an open class of words

Primary verbs (be, have, do) – main verb function
He does my washing.
Primary verbs (be, have, do) – auxiliary verb function
He was wearing a dark ski mask.

Modal verbs – auxiliary verb function
People thought he might have been joking.

In addition, verb can be classified on the basis of their semantic domains and valency patterns (copular = sporové, intransitive = neprechodné and transitive = prechodné – keď za ním nasleduje predmet). (valency = schopnosť sa viazať)
Finally, we make a fundamental distinction between simple lexical verbs and the various kinds of multi-word verbs (phrasal verbs, prepositional verb, and phrasal-prepositional verbs).

Valency patterns for single-word lexical verbs:
- 5 major patterns:

A. Intransitive – occur in the SV pattern with no object or predicative complement
More people/ come.
S V

B. Monotransitive – occur with a single direct object in the pattern SVOd (Od=direct object – we ask “What?”)
She/ carried/ a long whippy willow twig.
S V Od

C. Ditransitive – occur with 2 object noun phrases – an indirect object and a direct object in the pattern SVOiOd
Fred Unsworth/ gave/ her/ a huge vote of confidence.
S V Oi Od

D. Complex transitive – occur with a direct object noun phrase followed by either an object predicative (noun phrase or adjective) (object predicative = doplnok k predmetu)
in the pattern SVOdPo or by an obligatory adverbial in the pattern SVOdA.
It was natural to/ call/ them/ photons.
V Od Po
He reached out to/ put/ his hand/ on the child's shoulder.
V Od A

E. Copular – are followed by a subject predicative (a noun, adjective or prepositional phrase) in the pattern SVPs or by an obligatory circumstance adverbial in the pattern SVA.
Carie/ felt/ a little less bold.
S V Ps
I wasn't planning on/ staying/ at Terry and Lindsey's.
V A

Regular lexical verb inflections

Regular lexical verb have only 4 morphological variants, involving 3 suffixes added to a base:
• the base form – without any affix, used for infinitive, and present tense, excluding 3rd person singular
• the suffix –(e)s – third person singular present tense
• the suffix –ing – in progressive aspect
• the suffix –ed – past participle, in perfect and passive constructions